Azula - The Dragons Legacy
by Cristina Sunsetlily
Summary: When she was a little girl Azula discovered the Island of the Sun Warriors. Now 14 years old, Azula prepares to stop the war but before she does, she must discover her destiny, The dragons Legacy.(Starts Before the episode of the Sun Warriors)
1. Meeting the Masters

**Hello everybody, I am back with another fanfiction,this idea has been bugging me for a long time and I just had to write it down. Enjoy! :-)**

Azula - The Dragon's Legacy

A cloaked figure rushed across the ruins of a once well-known civilisation, the murals on the walls depicting dragons dancing along with warriors, flames swirling across their hands in response to their movements. The cloaked figure looking at the murals was destined to be greater than any of them. Her figure was nimble and agile, her steps swift and filled with cat- like grace, she passed the old streets of the sun warrior's city with practised-ease, denoting she had been here before, she carefully avoided all the hidden traps and continued to travel deeper into the labyrinth of ruins.

When she arrived at her destination, it was almost dawn, she slid into a lotus position and steadied her breathing as she waited for the sun to arise.

She had found this place, when she was younger, whilst exploring the rock pools by the beach during her vacations in Ember island, a gigantic wave had taken her by surprise, bashed her against the rocks and completely knocked her out cold, it was a miracle that the rocks hadn't been very jagged and the current wasn't very strong or she would have perished, instead, she found herself on an unknown shore, full of bruises and cuts and completely alone. Her, being a curious child and a independent one at, went exploring, thinking her family was just hiding.

Of course, as soon as she saw the traps, she was too scared to continue, for a while that is. She was never a person to be ruled by fear so after she got over the shock, she used her firebending skills to slightly enhance her jumps getting her across the pit of spikes, afterwards, she went, with much more care, examining each tile carefully so as to not set any more traps off.

Unfortunately, in the process of doing this her incredibly sharp mind realised was that these traps were new and well-kept , there was something weird going on, something not quite dead about the old ruins of the suns warriors, and she was determined to find out what it was.

And discover it she did, the figure smiled as she recalled that day, it was probably one of the rare occasions that she was left speechless, but it was worth it, that day something in her had changed, her heart, frozen by the cruelty of her father and the neglect of a mother began to thaw, of course, nobody else noticed, the change was slight, but it was there. Over the past few years, the change had become monumental, she was no longer the cold manipulative girl she had been, she was a caring young woman trying to find a way to stop the war and bring peace to the world. She still used her powers of perception and cunning, but only for the good of others.

For example, to pinpoint the Gaang's next move, that way she could discreetly steer her father's war plans in a direction that could favour the Avatar's advance so that he may end the war, it was a hard job, surviving under the orders of her cruel father but it had to be done, the avatar had to have someone who worked as a double agent, even if they themselves had not realised she was the one.

As the sun began its ascend across the sky, a great roar, was heard, rattling the mountains, the figure merely smiled in anticipation. Suddenly a flash of red rushed past the girl in a gust of warm air quickly joined by another cobalt one. The wind blew her hood back, leaving her face visible. Her skin was milky colour, her lips full and rosy red. Her silky ebony hair, was worn in a simple ponytail that blew back with the wind. Her eyes were narrowed like a hawks but held a warm glint in the depths of the rich honey colour.

She went by many names, Azula, Crown Princess of the Fire nation, Princess of the Sapphire flame, monster and…

"STUDENT!" Two voices roared inside her mind. The call of the masters, and they were, loud as usual, Azula suppressed a smirk as the two dragons, one a scarlet red and the other cobalt blue. It was time, she had been waiting the whole week for this, a respite for all the royal pressures and harsh training her father inflicted on her. Because in front of the masters, even her best lie was transparent, with the masters, she was just Azula, no more and no less.

"Azula, before we start, do your stretches and bring the first fire, then we might begin. "It had taken a while for Azula to get used to the dragons being able to speak in her mind but it no longer startled her, that was why as soon as they withdrew themselves from her mind, she went to retrieve a part of the first fire and prepared herself to make the journey that she had done every day since she had started training. As she did, she slowly started recalling the first time she made this journey.

She had found the Sun warriors by accident really, literally walked into their council meeting. To her credit, Azula, who at the time was about 7 years old and had already begun firebending just slipped into a firebending stance whilst the warriors reaction was less than honourable, they screamed like little girls for a good 30 seconds. That was something that to this day they regretted immensely, however, they knew that the now caring young woman they had taken under their wing would never betray them. Over the years, Azulas's frequent visits to the island had led for the sun warriors to become a sort of surrogate family for her. Sometimes, after she finished her training for the day with Ran and Shaw she visited the warriors and listened to their storytelling, it was amazing.

As soon as the warriors calmed down, they started frantically talking amongst themselves in a low volume that unsettled the young princess. Whispers of "She is too young to attempt the test" "The masters will not accept her" floated around the room. At this Azula's confusion quickly shifted to indignation, people always thought that because she was a little girl she couldn't do anything, she didn't suffer her father's harsh training to be rendered just a child, even her mother said she was a prodigy, although to Ursa, it seemed even her best wasn't enough.

Before she was able to voice those opinions however, the warrior in the middle who she assumed was the leader stood up and revealed his verdict "It is not for us to choose if she will do the test, as the Sun warriors, we are obliged to present the test to whoever desires to prove themselves". Azula was shocked all her indignation was gone and she barely registered that she was allowed to take the test, she could hear nothing after the words Sun Warriors came out of the chief's mouth. Her amber eyes widened and she stiffened in shock, this must be some sort of prank.

The warriors led her away to the first fire and explained everything, she was still slightly disbelieving but all her doubts dissipated when she sensed the fire, she felt the pulse of her chi eager to feel the warmth of this fire, it was a different kind of fire that her father had showed her, this one was full of life. She was glowing with happiness once the warriors gifted her with a piece of the fire, for the first time of her life, she felt truly alive and happy. She began her journey and whilst she did, her cold heart began to pulse with warmth while a rare beautiful smile graced her delicate features.

Contrary to expectations, Azula passed the test. Whilst the dragons circled her, Azula, trembling with awe flawlessly performed the form of the Dancing Dragons the Sun warriors had taught her, the masters danced on both sides of her spewing fire from their jaws and twirling in time to the girls movements. Nearing the end of the dance, Azula felt a powerful presence enter her mind, her shock was so monumental that she almost hesitated in the dance, something which would have been fatal. The voice roared inside her head "Yess, you have been found worthy, you will be a fine student". This of course only raised more questions. Azula responded in her mind "Worthy, worthy of what?"

The dragon's response shook her to the core "Of the Dragons legacy".

* * *

 **Hope you liked it, this was originally supposed to be a one shot but I expanded on it and now it will have multiple chapters. Can any of you guess what the masters meant in the last line? Write your opinion in the comments Please.**


	2. Shappire flames

**Hello guys, I'm back with another chapter, in this one, we continue with the flashbacks. I thank all the people who left reviews. And as for the pairing, you will just have to wait and see, although I am leaning towards Azulaang, of course the story is not set in stone so i don't know yet. Enjoy!**

 **I forgot to put a disclaimer in the first chapter, I do not own Avatar the last Airbender or any of it's characters**

 **Chapter 2**

Azula trained with the dragons for the whole day, they however didn't train the young girl in the art of using fire for fighting, they showed her how to create life. After all, everyone needs balance in their life. She had finally had found her balance and now Azula knew, that her firebending would never be the same again. And she was right.

* * *

 _A while later..._

Azula was in trouble, from the moment that she decided to go exploring the Island of the Sun Warriors she knew trouble was waiting when she got back to Ember Island, now after having been smuggled home in a nondescript sail boat belonging to the warriors in the middle of the night, hours after she had disappeared, Azula knew she was in for a big one.

But she had never, and I mean never expected for her uncle to call her so they could talk in private, after haven gotten chewed out by her parents. She wasn't ashamed to say that she was slightly wary of his temper, when he wanted to, he could be terrifying, he once drove Lu Ten to tears after a failed prank on a group of ministers from Omashu, let's just say they weren't happy to be covered in cake. But now, as Uncle took a seat opposite me in his leather chair, he didn't really seem angry, just curious. "Azula" he said cautiously, choosing his words carefully and game was he playing at, Azula wondered, he was obviously not angry, that much was obvious so what could he possibly want from her.

She was snapped out of her musings as he continued speaking in the same low tone "Azula, show me your fire", said girl was now looking at him warily, where did that come from. He couldn't possibly know where she went right? What if he found out? What if he decided to slay the dragons to again prove his title as Dragon of the West? A whirlwind of questions overwhelmed her young mind, all she knew that Iroh could not kill them, they were the last ones. Slowly and with full blown fear of being discovered, Azula reached for her chi and channelled it to her trembling hands to create a flame, there was only one problem.

Her fire was blue

Iroh's sharp intake of breath told her this was definitely not a normal, she started panicking, what was going on, her fire had never been blue, she had not heard of anyone who could bend blue flames, her secret would come out and she would be sent to prison for training with dragons, her whole family would be so disappointed. She started to hyperventilate, her fire went out without her even noticing. Her slim frame began shaking violently in terror, eyes wide and unfocused seeing but at the same time not seeing. She stood up and began backing herself into the wall behind her, panic wracking her body.

Her uncle, seeing the state of her young niece began trying to get her to calm down, after a few arduous minutes, Azula found herself sitting against the wall of her uncle's office, gasping for breath. She pushed her fear down with difficulty and faced her uncle, when he spoke again, this time his voice was gentle and comforting. "My niece, did you meet the masters?"Azula's breath hitched but knew lying was futile, so she responded "Yes"

Contrary to all expectations, her uncle's face broke into a smile and his eyes shone with mirth and childlike excitement, yep, Uncle Iroh was back. He rose to his full height and lifted her up easily. Then he swept her into a bone-crushing hug and sighed in relief. Azula, unused to this treatment stiffened initially and internally was screaming but slowly she started to ease herself into the hug. When they finally separated, Iroh had a full blown smile planted on his face, he spoke happily. "I can't believe that you passed the test and I am so happy that you have found the true meaning firebending, it seems it is not only in Zuko that struggles with the two sides of his bloodlines."Years later, that statement

He invited her to a cup of tea (of course) and they talked all about firebending and tea courtesy of Iroh. This encounter led to many more over the years, they finally started connecting like the family they were, Azula learnt all about tea and steadily got better at Pai sho to the point of almost beating him several times, he even taught her a strange strategy involving the white lotus tile. Seriously, he had an unearthly obsession with that lotus move for some reason.

Unknown to everybody but her uncle, she continued visiting Ran and Shaw, her firebending got stronger and her sapphire flames became her trademark attack. She got vengeance on the warriors for 'forgetting' to tell her that the dragon of the west did not kill the last dragons, her method was a more successful version of Lu Ten's prank on the ministers, she almost didn't get away but it was so worth it.

She mourned with Iroh when his son died, he consoled her after Ozai overworked the young firebender in training and was still wanting more from her, Azula in turn consoled him when he was overcome with sorrow about Lu Ten's death, he became the father she never had.

Then everything had to fall apart.

Ursa left protecting the young prince. Ozai knew that his wife would do anything to stop her beloved son from death, and Azula knew that, she attracted her mother's attention in the only she knew how, by hurting Zuko's feelings, afterwards she tried to warn her Mother but she just said she was being stupid, when the poor girl insisted; Ursa snapped, and the words she uttered at that moment would haunt Azula forever.

"Young lady, how dare you accuse your father of such tricks, you are turning into a monster."

Tears brimming in her eyes, Azula, whose intentions had been pure, ran out of the room sobbing, her father wanted her to become a weapon and her own mother didn't want anything to do with her. She was useless. She climbed to the top of the palace where no one went and cried herself to sleep. Unbeknownst to her, Iroh had heard that shouted words of her mother and watch the young girl run out of her room crying, her heart bleeding. He followed her from a distance and saw that she had climbed on to the roof.

Sighing in reluctance, he begun his climb, she so owed him for this. Panting, he reached the top and muttering about walls and agile little girls went towards Azula who was leaning against the roof and sleeping, her ragged breathing and the tear stains on her cheeks and sleeping robe told him she had most likely just fallen asleep. So he waited.

Azula woke up to a loud rumbling and a starry sky she must have fallen asleep although it was still nighttime , she stretched and suddenly remembered what had happened just a few hours ago, she no longer felt the need to cry however, she just felt miserable. She turned around and saw her uncle sprawled around the roof, snoring the night away, thus the mystery of the rumbling was solved. She went to sit next to him and pulled her knees up to her chest and thought about her mothers words,am I really a monster she thought. "No you are not my girl" She started, her uncle was awake, she hadn't realised she had voiced her last thought. Her uncle drew her up into a hug like he had all those years ago and prompted Azula to tell him what was wrong, and she did. By the end, Azula was half asleep and Iroh, seeing this whispered,"Sleep Azula, things will be better in the morning" Azula complied but before she did, she mumbled two words that made Iroh's heart clench with emotion.

"Ok Dad"

 **AWWWWWWWWW! So cute, Iroh thinks of azula as her daughter and azula thinks of Iroh as his dad. I hope you like the father/daughter bonding i did there. This chapter had a lot of exposition and im sorry if you didn't enjoy that, I sure did :) Please review, constructive criticism is welcome because you learn from your mistakes, however, no flames, please. I know** **Ursa seems like a jerk in this chapter but you have to understand, ursa still thinks azula is evil and she is worried for her son.**


	3. Crystal Birth

**Chapter 3**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar the last airbender or any of its characters**

 **Heyyyyyyy, are you guys mad (puppy eyes)please don't be mad, i had assesments this week and it has been really stressful, also, we already got some of the results and i was kind of sad for some of them. :(**

 **Anyway it's the month of November and you are supposed to write a story this month so… I will try and update all my fanfictions, and you guys will in turn write reviews, Deal?**

 **OK thanks, now in response to some comments, this will not correspond with canon, Azula will be a bit OC but still be the sarcastic, perceptive person we know, she just had… more of a childhood. Also since the dragons cant speak, any conversation they have is always telepathic but they will growl and stuff to prove their point (eg laughing)**

A sharp gust of wind blew Azula out of her musings, with a start the firebender realised she was almost at the summit, she had gone all the way up wrapped in memories, she never used to be so pensive, she was betting it was the work of her tea loving Uncle, yep definitely his fault.

She wondered what she was going to do today. She was well over the master level at this point event though he father didn't know that, the masters had even gone as far as letting her invent her own moves and helped her develop other aspects of firebending, including lightning bending and heat bending.

All in all, every lesson promised to be something not even she could predict, for very few texts contained information on how to do many of these techniques. So when, she found the dragons standing in front of a rock the size of her whole body covered in carvings, she was only... minutely surprised.

"Ahhhhhhh" Ran rumbled, "you finally made it, you seemed lost in the depths of your mind, my young student" Azula smiled, straight to the point as usual, before she could respond however Shaw spoke up preventing another snarky comment from their student. "Ahem ahem, if you two are quite done, we have a lesson to start."Ran roared in what could be compared to laughter before he replied "Yes of course brother, today you are going to try and practice a form of lava bending, you will try to heat this rock hot enough to melt and then try move the lava, this is your new task, you may start"

"Oh come on"Azula screamed as the dragons took flight and started sunning themselves whilst watching her, "You cant just leave me like this again, i need more instruction!" Seeing her words had no effect whatsoever yet again, she sighed and sat down in front of the boulder brazing herself for another long day. She knew it wasn't going to be easy to melt it, it was probably not an ordinary rock she mused, sigh.

ONE HOUR, ONE FULL HOUR she had been trying to melt this blasted rock, it just would not melt, by now she was sure that the dragons had definitely done something to this rock, but they said that for the first part of this exercise she would have no help she needed to do this on her own to grow mentallly blah blah blah, needless to say, she wasn't in one of her best moods, like ever. Groaning in fatigue she coated her hands in her trademark sapphire flames and pressed them to the rock once again.

Two hours, azula endured trying to melt the infernal rock, but finally, the rock began to melt. Once the outer shell was gone, the rest seemed to be much easier, on the upside, she did improve her aim when she trew her lunch at the dragons when they came down to check on her, probably not the best idea for which she would pay later but right now she really did not care.

Once she melted most of the rock, the masters finally deigned to come down. They then proceed to congratulate the young woman aaaaaaannnnd give her more work WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME!

There was a crystal in the rock (the reason why the rock was so hard apparently) some numbo jumbo about density and formed in a volcanoes fire and you have to melt it WHAAAAAAAT Oh come on, more melting... Sigh, just breathe.

Apparently, this crystal had a different way of melting and it was very beautiful and could be used to craft very beautiful jewelery, she wouldnt have done it except her uncles birthday was in a few weeks and he wanted some decorative pai sho tile or something, why he needed that i have no idea but, I might as well since i don't know what to get him exactly.

It was sundown by the time she managed to get that blasted crystal to melt, the dragons had already retreated to their caves to rest, the timing was actually excellent, just as the sun touched the horizon, the crystal began to melt crack and hiss, yessssssssssss I did it.

The crystal began to crack and slowly layers began to come off giving it the impression of a lily flower, it glimmered in the sunset giving off violet hues contrasted by the warm scarlet, but the exhausted teen could not stop to admire it lest she lost her concentration, her fire burning white with a blinding heat, her hands had not been hurt too much yet but she could already feel the burning pain just shy of it's full strength but starting to appear.

Suddenly, just as she thought she finally made the flower open completly, a scalding pulse shot through the moutain top that blasted everything away in a ring of fire, a crater appeared at its epicentre.

Azula, right at its centre was violently hurled away, she took a blow to the knee and her hip before she fell a hundred metres away when her head smashed with a resounding crack against the cave wall, knocking her out in an instant. Her battered body slid to the ground, a trail of blood trickling from her head. The world stood still for a moment, as if wondering what was going to happen next.

* * *

From the smoking crater, a shriek echoed through its depths shaking the mountain and the rest of the island with its ringing pitch. Slowly, very slowly time began to run again, the faint sounds once again wafting up from the rest of the island, but at the same time a glittering paw rose from the edge, followed by another.

After what seemed like an eternity, a scaly head revealed itself with an elegance remarcable for a being so young, a slender snake-like body glided out of the crater and up to the senseless young woman.

A dragon had been born.

 **Hey sorry this chapter wasnt very long but i decided to end it here, at least there wasn't cliffhangers, i would like to know if you have any preferences on what the dragon will look like or its name, so please Review and tell me! But no flamers please**


	4. Twilight Friendships

**Ummmm... Hi? Ok i know its been like forever but i really had absolutely no inspiration and anytime i tried adding something to the chapter, it just wasn't right. But I have worked very hard and so here it is. A new chapter! Hope you guys like it :)**

* * *

Azula woke up slowly, her head pounded like it had been run over by a herd of komodo dragons because her head was surely about to split it two. But, she was Princess Azula of the Fire Nation and she was NOT going to get defeated by a mere headache.

One, two, three... MOVE

She shifted her head and immediately bit back a scream as her head was hit by a wave of fire. she clutched her head in agony as she bit her tongue to stop a scream from escaping. Must Not Show Weakness!

After her headache subsided, she was able to slowly incorporate herself to a sitting position, she rubbed her bruised back,suppressing a groan of weariness, she was no stranger to pain,but that didn't mean she had to like it. She brushed her bangs away from her eyes and looked around, there was a crater cut into the rock about 15 feet before her, and pieces of dust along with a fine layer of crystal from the gem that had "exploded".

Ah, that's right, the gem. She crawled to the edge of the chasm carefully, trying to ignore the painful throbbing of her body. But when she gazed down at the smoking crater where the explosion had taken place, all she saw was the debris. She stared at it perplexed, her mind racing with possibility as she slowly tensed, wary of this strange phenomenon, her instincts were alerting her of another presence and she prided herself on having excellent instincts.

Then all of a sudden, right there in the edge of her saw a flash, so fast, she barely caught it before it dimmed once more

She stiffened involuntarily and slowly shifted by body to a position of attack, simultaneously trying not to alert the cause of the flash. She wanted to seem unaware, that gave her a modicum of unpredictability, she hoped that it could make up for the fact that she was still feeling slightly unbalanced from banging her head against a rock.

She stood still, fighting a peaceful battle with her invisible combatant, neither of them willing to give up and make the first move. Azula, stood tense, her calculating narrowed, her mind already racing with possibilities, power beginning to gather in her core in preparation for a fight. But just in the last second, her opponent seemed to give in and strode into view.

And just like that, her life was changed forever. She saw a crystalline figure snake its way before her. She stood still as a statue, sensing that a monumental event was about to take just as it finally reached her, the creature stopped and just,

purred

Azula stood there, locked in an attack position whilst 2 sides of her waged within her. The first was a ruthless side, one who had no mercy, who was flawless and deadly in devising and executing plans, in other words, her fathers weapon.

And the other side was... a snarky, caring sarcastic, slightly reserved but none the less incredibly powerful young woman. This side of her was the side that the dragons had nurtured as they trained her. But now here she stood, in front of the unknown, and she wasn't sure... which side to choose

Her father

or

The dragons

Perfection

or

Humantity

Fight...

or Trust

Slowly she edged closer to the young dragon, unsure whether it was hostile. Never before had she had to choose like this, Ran and Shaw had at least possesed some value, they could teach her to be stronger, but this newborn, well there was no reason to keep it alive.

So why did she still hesitate?

Something in her flared suddenly and fire formed in her left hand, which she slashed towards the dragon resting on the ground, the dragon did nothing, merely looking at her with crystalline cerulean eyes, pleading at her to stop.

So she did

Her fiery hand halted, millimetres away from the glimmering scales,her face screwed up in a snarl, gasps coming from her mouth as she struggled with her decision.

The fire was snuffed out as she sank to her knees, in front of the young dragon, her head in her hands as she came to terms to what she had been about to do. Unnoticed by her, the dragon crossed the distance that separated them and laid down by her side, entranced by the warmth that came from her inner fire.

Azula looked at the young hatch-ling that had sought refuge next to her and she smiled a cautious, but genuine smile

And just as the first stars appeared in the twilight sky a friendship flourished.

* * *

Inside the dragons caves,an onlooker wrapped in a cape fluttering in the breeze observed what had just transpired, he nodded appreciatively and nodded. Then he turned to Ran and Shaw and spoke to them "You have trained her well my old friends,"he paused and appeared lost in thought, then her declared his verdict

"She is ready"

 **And another chapter is done, I realise not much happened in the chapter but as I said already I did not have much inspiration and had to struggle to even produce this.I also know it wasn't very long but hopefully the next chapter will be longer That said, I hope you guys enjoy it and please review, it gives so much motivation. Even if it is just advice or constructive critisism please review. Please no flames. Suggestions would also be great, of course i will not necessarily include them but I will try to.**

 **Bye!**


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